PlaySight Brings Its SmartCourts To The High School Level

Much is expected of high school coaches. They’re pressed with the delicate balance of developing the playerwhile keeping a keen eye on developing each student as a person. Oftentimes, and rightfully so, precedent falls on the latter. Still, with the high-level of competitiveness in high school sports, schools are looking for an edge.

That’s why PlaySight, creators of the cutting-edge SmartCourt technology, is expanding into the high school market.

Programs that become “SmartSchools” (10 have signed up in the last two months) will reap the benefits of multi-angle 4K & HD video streaming of all SmartCourts in their facilities. One of the 10, the Ensworth School in Nashville, Tenn. has a long history of technology use in its athletic programs.

“We always, athletically, have relied heavily on technology and integrating technology into our sports programs to help us become more competitive, to train better and to, you know, compete,” said Jason Robinson, the head of IT & Media at Ensworth.

Six sports at Ensworth currently use PlaySight technology: tennis, swimming, basketball, volleyball lacrosse and soccer. Along with providing playback footage to improve player performance, the school has been using the PlaySight system as a live streaming device. Robinson added that having a livestream available is nice for the families of athletes playing from out of town.

However, PlaySight prides itself on being much more than a broadcast solution; its main focus is on athlete development.

The Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass. recently became the first high school wrestling program in the country to add PlaySight to its repertoire. For Charles Danhof, Nobles’ head coach, use of the system has become an integral part of each daily practice.

With five cameras installed around the gym, not a single hand position in practice goes unseen. Danhof explained the benefit.

“If a student-wrestler is having trouble with a certain technique and one of the coaches, or I, or both of us, are saying, ‘hey, move your hands to this position,’ and the kid just doesn’t quite understand and he needs to have a visual and see; one of us will take him over to the monitor, right in real-time rewind to where exactly he was, use some of the tools that the monitor has, circle his hands, draw an arrow to where they should be and then you know, ideally, the kid goes back, gets a much better understanding now that he has a visual of what he actually looked like doing the move as opposed to seeing the coach or another wrestler demonstrate a move,” he said.

Improving by watching film isn’t something new to sport — but for a high school wrestling coach to be able to interact with footage to further explain technique, that’s something new.

Danhof sees another major benefit for he and his athletes when it comes to using PlaySight. There are an infinite amount of techniques that can be taught in wrestling. Hence why Danhof encourages his team to go back and review different things.

“I encourage them as their coach early on, ‘hey, instead of going on Facebook or Snapchat, go ahead and check out PlaySight once you’ve done your homework.’”

Pulling a high schooler off social media? Could it be possible?

While Danhof acknowledges there are plenty of old-school coaches out there, he believes utilization of this tech will increase given its various uses, from putting together recruiting tape to allowing greater exposure to practice film. “I think the trickle down effect to high school is just going to get bigger and bigger over time.”

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About Logan Bradley

Logan covers a wide range of subjects within the intersection of sports & technology for SportTechie. A graduate of the University of Illinois, he was an All-American gymnast and finalist for NCAA gymnastics’ version of the Heisman Trophy. He resides in the Chicagoland area.
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